


Four To Tango

by connorssock



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Get Together, M/M, M/M/M/M, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 02:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20056297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock
Summary: Soulmates were portrayed as the ultimate life partner. Gavin was one of the rarities to have not one, not two but three of them. If only Hank hadn't rejected him and now Connor and Nines were seemingly siding with him.





	Four To Tango

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stujet9rainshine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stujet9rainshine/gifts).

> For the amazing Stu who didn't get anything for the Vday exchange after not only their original gifter but also their pinch hitter dropped out. They wanted Hankvin1700 soulmates where Hank and Gavin weren't together before the revolution.

The marks of soulmates were always heralded as something magical and wonderful. To find your soulmate was to live a long and fulfilled life. Society considered the tragedies to be soulmates who were ripped from each other by death, those who battled prejudice and overcame it were celebrated. Nobody mentioned those who opted not to follow the guidance of their mark. Those were the outliers of society, who nobody really wanted to think about. The likes of Hank and Gavin who met through work. But by then, Hank was already Gavin’s superior, to acknowledge and allow for their bond to form it would have meant reassignment for one of them and neither had wanted that. So they went their ways, coldly respectful of each other but nothing more than colleagues. Hank even tried to build himself a family, ignoring the one name and two serial numbers hidden just under his collarbone.

That was a whole other issue. Everyone else had a single name on their skin. Maybe two if they were a rarity. But nobody had a name and two sets of similar numbers. That had been a quiet chat over a drink as they sorted out what each of them wanted. Resentment sometimes simmered between them, especially when tired and cranky after a case. The knowledge that they’d picked that over each other hurt. Long nights on stakeouts, dangerous criminals and death defying moments in favour of nights curled up on the sofa together.

It got even worse when Connor arrived at the precinct and was assigned to Hank. As soon as he saw his serial number, Gavin knew who it was. The fact that Connor didn’t seem to care about him, favoured an assignment to Hank burned. It was why he had lashed out, punishing both Hank and Connor with scathing remarks and barely concealed hate. Except he didn’t hate them, he hid behind that veil to keep the sadness out of sight. So nobody could see the loneliness which clawed at his chest each night. Hank’s name and now Connor’s number itched as he watched them grow closer together, as Connor gained his deviancy. All Gavin wanted to do was scratch the marks off his skin because, if they weren’t there, then perhaps he wouldn’t feel the hole in his chest as keenly.

The revolution happened, Gavin got to watch it all unfold, saw Connor up on the makeshift podium with the deviant leader. After that, he disappeared but Gavin knew if he kept tabs on Hank, he would find Connor. Sure enough, one of the patrol drones picked up an image of Hank waiting in the sunlight which glared off the snow. All too soon, a second figure approached and Gavin was glad he was alone in the control room so he could gulp down the betrayal when the hug moved to a kiss.

The next time Hank and Connor came to the precinct, Gavin didn’t look at them. Couldn’t, not without the weight of the world crushing him down. Hank hadn’t wanted him, gave the excuse of work but there he was, with Connor, working together then going home to fuck no doubt. All in all, Gavin knew he wasn’t exactly a catch but he had grown up believing that there were three people out there who would want him exactly as he was. To have two of those not only outright reject him but carry on as if his name wasn’t branded on their skin was beyond painful.

“You must be Detective Reed,” a voice brought him out of his misery as he watched Hank and Connor laugh at their desk. “I’m-”

“RK900 #313 248 317 - 87, I know who you are,” Gavin cut in after a glance at the jacket and familiar numbers stared back at him. “You want to go see Lieutenant Anderson and Connor over there.” He jabbed his thumb in their direction without looking. It was typical of his luck that his third soulmate would show up, now he would get to watch them play happy families while he stared in from the sidelines, wondering what he’d done so wrong.

The android’s mouth snapped shut as he nodded. Gavin tried not to cry at how easily he was left behind when the RK900 started moving towards the other two. He was discarded yet again, hadn’t even been given a chance really. Not that he’d made himself very desirable but it was so much easier to fend someone off at the start rather than give it a go and watch how they got lured away by the happiness the other two could provide so much better than Gavin could.

Rubbing at his chest, over the names branded there, Gavin tried to focus on his terminal and ignore the introductions being made on the other side of the bullpen. He quietly patted himself on the back when he heard laughter break out from the other three, kept his eyes down and pretended that they burned from the brightness of the screen. What he didn’t expect was for a body to flop down into the empty chair opposite him.

“Hank says I have been assigned to you are a partner, Detective,” RK900 informed him. “You may call me Nines, it seems to be an appropriate name.”

A sneer pulled at Gavin’s nose, it wasn’t fair how Nines was already on first name basis with Hank. That took him over a year even though he was the first soulmate to meet him.

“I don’t need help. I don’t need a partner,” he snapped.

“No, you don’t. But perhaps I do.” It was said so reasonably, so straightforward that Gavin choked back a laugh.

“You’ve got two others right over there. You don’t need me.” He pretended that he was still talking about police work and nothing else.

“Need and want are two very different things. Perhaps you’d like to join us for a drink this evening. To get acquainted.”

Nervous, Gavin glanced over at the other two who seemed to be watching him intently while pretending they weren’t paying attention. Huffing out a bitter laugh, Gavin shook his head.

“You don’t need me there. I know when I’m not wanted and refuse to be a pity fuck.”

He watched how Nines simply nodded, didn’t even fight him on his decision. It proved 

everything he had feared. They didn’t really want him, merely a formality so they could gently let him down should he have been foolish enough to accept. Hell, Gavin wouldn’t have been surprised if his name hadn’t been tattooed out and obscured on all three of them, erasing him from their happy little family.

That afternoon, he found Connor by his bike, leaning against it and watching him with a curious gaze.

“You really should come with us,” he insisted and Gavin threw his head back with a laugh.

“As I told Nines, I know my place. You and Hank made that perfectly clear to me weeks ago. Hell, Hank made it obvious years ago. Go and enjoy life with Nines and don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine by myself, always have been, always will be.” He almost believed his own lie too.

Getting on the bike, he was grateful he couldn’t look back over his shoulder no matter how much temptation pulled at him. In the end, he got home and could convince himself that he was mostly okay. Just another blip in his emotional landscape and nothing more.

The knock on the door that evening was less than welcome. Gavin was half tempted to ignore it but it came again. Struggling up from his comfortable nest on the sofa, he stomped to the door and threw it open to find a sheepish looking Hank.

“Could we talk?” he asked.

As much as Gavin wanted to slam the door in his face, something stopped him. A sliver of hope which he couldn’t quite extinguish.

“You’ve got them both if that’s what you’re asking for. I won’t kick up a fuss, won’t try and tempt them away from you. You’ve always been the superior one, I know when to stay down if kicked to the ground.” He hadn’t meant to be quite so melodramatic but he had nothing else left to say. It was the truth anyway, there was no contest between him and Hank. Connor had made his choice clear and soon Nines would follow just the same. Simply, Gavin was making things easier for them all, avoiding the drama and the arguments that would no doubt occur.

Shaking his head, Hank looked at him with sad eyes. “That’s not what I’m saying. Gavin,” he looked pleading, “I’m saying I made a mistake. It took me years to realise and this long to work up the courage to try and remedy it.”

Stepping away from the doorway as though he’d been slapped, Gavin staggered a little. He shook his head, biting his lips as he tried to make sense of it. His gut reaction was to say no, close the door and pretend it never happened. After so long, there was no way he was suddenly desirable.It had to be a prank or some guilt trip on Hank’s part.

Unfortunately, with the door left wide open and him out of the way, it left space for Hank to step in, looking like a kicked puppy. They stared at each other, Hank with sad hope while Gavin’s eyes held nothing but distrust and fear. He’d done so well all these years, pretending he was okay. If Hank knocked those walls down now, only to stomp on him, Gavin wasn’t sure he could pick himself up and glue the pieces of the aftermath back together.

“I’m sorry.” Words which Gavin had dreamed of hearing were suddenly whispered into the silence of his living room. They didn’t hold the same power as he’d hoped though. There was no weight off his shoulder, no lightness of the forgiving. Instead, bitter spite filled him.

“You don’t even want me. I bet the other two bullied you into this, made you apologise because they wanted to see for themselves how much of a failure I am. Why couldn’t they just take your word when you told them I’m not worth the trouble?” he hissed and was mortified when hot tears trickled down his cheeks.

Watching the way Hank could barely look at him, he nodded and pointed at the door. “Get out. Go be happy with your soulmates, the two of them will hopefully be enough for you.”

Hank turned with a small nod. His hand was on the handle when he looked back. “You’re my soulmate too though. I was just too blind to realise how much I needed you until now.”

“Out!” Gavin screamed.

Instead, Hank drew a deep breath. “You stood by because you thought that would make me happy. Watched me try and find a family aside from you. When it all went tits up, you were still there, helping from the background. Fowler told me how much you fought to help me keep my job, did overtime in my name to make sure I was hitting deadlines on paper. I never said thank you, never even acknowledged you. And I’m sorry. You deserve so much better. The other two were the ones to push me to this, you’re right. But not because I didn’t want to. It’s because I was too chicken shit to approach you all these years.”

The door opened and Hank slipped out, a few tears stained his cheeks too. For the rest of the night, Gavin lay curled around a pillow and cried until he was too tired and slipped into a fitful sleep.

At the precinct, nothing seemed to change yet everything was different at the same time. Gavin still went to work, got on with his job and Nines was his partner. But now, Connor drifted over at times, mostly to talk to Nines but he tried to involve Gavin in it too. Even brought him a coffee from time to time.

Despite his best efforts to resist, Gavin’s resolve was being worn down gradually. He accepted the coffees, found himself drawn into conversations and even caught himself laughing at something with Connor one day. All that time, Hank kept his distance. He didn’t try to intercept, didn’t try to tear Nines and Connor away from Gavin. They seemed to have reached an impasse and something was going to have to give.

In the end, it wasn’t Hank or Gavin who buckled. It was Nines and Connor who, like chess masters, corralled them into position. After a long case with an anticlimactic end, Nines had suggested going out. It had seemed so innocent, Gavin agreed, looking forward to a nice evening with decent company. What he hadn’t expected was for the bar to be full and Nines to nod towards a booth that had two empty seats. The two that were occupied were taken by Hank and Connor.

“Let’s sit down then I’ll get drinks,” Nines suggested even though he left no room for disagreement. He steered Gavin to the booth and watched him sit down next to Connor with an awkward smile before disappearing.

At first, there was silence at the table, Gavin having no idea what to say. He and Hank hadn’t spoken a lot since that night. Nothing outside of work anyway. It wasn’t easy but it was the least emotionally taxing thing they could do in their situation. Eventually, Nines returned with their drinks and settled next to Hank, putting an easy arm around his shoulder.

“I take it you’ve already deducted that this is no accidental bumping into each other,” he started and Gavin nodded. “Good, that does make things so much easier.”

He tugged at his shirt, opened the buttons and tugged it to the side to reveal three lines of black ink. Gavin’s name, Connor’s number and Hank’s name all in a neat list.

“I have three soulmates,” he said, “and that’s you three. I know you each have a matching set of marks with our names under your collarbones. Now, Connot and I have been talking. We want this to work but understand that the two of you have some history.”

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” Hank grumbled.

A squeeze to his shoulders shut him up and Nines continued, “I want us to try and make this work. It won’t be easy, won’t be a simple fix. But I know that you’re both hurting and by the virtue of that, so are Connor and I. So, I want tonight to be the time we clear things up and try and set things straight. If at the end of the evening you’re both adamant that this won’t work, we will accept that. But I do hope we can get on track to sorting this mess out.”

In the silence of their table, Gavin stared at the table. He wasn’t sure he could go through with it, not after all the years of hurt and rejection. Looking across the table at Hank, he wondered what was going through his mind. What Gavin wasn’t expecting was for Connor to reach for his hand and give it a gentle squeeze.

“We just want the best for us all.”

“I’m not sure if my best is good enough for you,” Gavin admitted quietly and Hank made a choked off noise. They both knew it was his fault Gavin felt that way but neither really wanted to admit it.

In the end, it took Nines and Connor jointly trying to help a conversation blossom to get any kind of dialogue going. Hurts and fears slowly dripped out into the open along with regrets and apologies. A lot of apologies. By the end of the evening, the issue wasn’t resolved, far from it. But at least Gavin left with an inkling of hope that there might be something more than just animosity and years of hurt between them.

They ended up meeting up again, this time with all of them knowing about it. Nobody mentioned soulmates then, too intent on trying to make it into a pleasant night. Gavin even got a laugh or two out of Hank which was progress.

Perhaps the biggest breakthrough came in front of the coffee machine. Gavin had stumbled in for the morning debrief after pulling a late night shift and Hank was already there, fixing himself a cup. Taking one look at Gavin, he reached for another cp and wordlessly made him a drink The mumbled “thanks” was accompanied by a soft press of shoulders as they stood next to each other until the meeting was starting. It was only half way through the day that Gavin realised what had happened.

It began to be a more frequent occurrence, Hank actually sought him out, not just for work related things but company too. All while Nines and Connor orbited them both, dipping in as they wanted but not disturbing the slowly growing trust between them.

“So, what’s it like?” Gavin asked one afternoon with a sly smirk.

“What’s what like?” Hank actually looked confused, even when Gavin sent him an exaggerated wink.

“You know. Sex with an android or two.”

The ruddy red that coloured Hank’s cheeks was priceless. He would have laughed except Hank’s mumbled reply stopped him in his track. “I don’t know. We’ve not gone there yet. Were going to wait for you.”

All humour was gone in an instant and Gavin was furiously backpedalling with half sentences of “You don’t want that,” and “Not with me,” “Seriously, you should just go for it.” The shake of head which Hank gave him made him stall.

“The other two are right, it’s something that all of us should experience. If you want to that is.”

The problem was, Gavin did want. He never really stopped wanting but that had been overshadowed by the hurt. Now though, with months spent trying to pick through it all, it was there again. Hidden behind confusion and the tendrils of forgiveness was hope.

It took another two evenings for anything to happen though. They were at Hank’s, Sumo slobbering away after a fulfilling dinner. For some reason Connor and Nines had insisted on disappearing around the corner of the kitchen to wash up while Hank and Gavin sat on the sofa. Absentmindedly, Gavin rubbed at his chest, right over the three soulmate names and Hank’s eyes followed his movement.

“This is pretty crazy, huh?” Hank asked, angling to face Gavin on the sofa.

“Tell me about it.” He nodded and took in the way Hank was sitting. It had been brewing for so long between them, now flourishing without the impediment of foolishness and overwhelming hurt. Leaning towards Hank felt easy and difficult at the same time. Gavin was relieved when he was met halfway, their lips brushed in a kiss that was years overdue. To the side, he heard Nines’ “fucking finally” cut off by a sharp squawk which was undoubtedly Connor elbowing him in a port. A hand passed through Gavin’s hair, too smooth and light to be Hank’s. He broke from the kiss to look up, wide eyed at Connor who smiled at him and leaned down for a peck of his own.

“Just because I’m the youngest doesn’t mean I should always go last,” Nines grumbled and shoved Connor towards Hank to claim his own kiss from Gavin.

Head spinning from it all, Gavin chuckled in disbelief, drawing Connor and Hank’s attention from their more lewd kiss. The similar expressions of “yes?” had Gavin shaking his head.

“I never thought this would happen,” he finally admitted and grabbed Nines who was trying to get comfortable in his lap, tucking himself under Gavin’s chin like a giant cat.

“Me neither,” Hank admitted softly. “And I’ve only got myself to blame for taking so long. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Gavin admitted softly. “And don’t forget, it takes two to tango.”

From between them, Connor cleared his throat, “In this situation, I think you’ll find, it takes four to tango.”

They really should have expected Nines to cut in then. Still, they were blindsided when he spoke up. “All this talk of tango when really, we should be talking about the horizontal mambo.”

A laugh broke the mood and they all giggled at the notion. They all knew that was where they were headed, sooner or later. But to have it out in the open and acknowledged was so much different than the quiet, almost secretive way they all thought about it privately.

“Soon,” Gavin nodded, “not tonight but soon.”

That was good enough for them all. They did have all the time in the world now.

**Author's Note:**

> Still on tumblr, spouting bull on @connorssock

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Healing Heartbreak](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275942) by [PanderrynRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanderrynRose/pseuds/PanderrynRose)


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